Cupcake Kid
by SereneCalamity
Summary: Richie had fallen hard for the boy at the cupcake shop. Reddie. Oneshot.


_This is just a short fic about our adorable two. Hope you guys enjoy it._

 _Disclaimer: I do not own the characters._

 _Cupcake Cafe_ was a new place that had popped up two blocks away from NYU, where Richie Tozier was studying music. He managed to avoid it for all of one week before he was sucked in by the gorgeous smells and the tantalizing cupcakes that were being advertised in the window. His best friend, Beverly Marsh, had already been there twice, since she worked out the coffee shop just across the street from it, and she had sworn that they had been orgasmic.

After going the first time, it wasn't the incredible boysenberry cupcakes that had kept him coming back.

It was the adorable boy behind the counter.

He was short, maybe half a head shorter than Richie, although it was a bit hard to tell over the counter and cabinets, with brown hair that looked so ridiculously soft, and was always brushed so it fell just so. It looked like maybe he wore a bit of gloss on his lips, making them look unfairly kissable, and the bright purple and blue uniform shirt that he wore had his name emblazoned on the right breast pocket in pink stitching.

 _Eddie_.

It took all of five seconds from Richie making his way to the front of the line to spot the beautiful boy—and those five seconds were because his breath was completely taken away by how gorgeous he was—before he was hitting on him.

Eddie Kaspbrak just stared back at him flatly, and then asking in a monotone voice what cupcake he wanted.

Richie hadn't known how to respond, usually people either a) responded in kind, b) told him to piss off, or c) rolled their eyes and ignored him. The last one was most common from his friends, who were used to Richie's ridiculous flirting and lewd jokes.

Eddie just acted as though he hadn't heard a thing.

Richie hadn't known what to say, and so he ordered the Berry-Splosion and walked out of the store in a daze, Bev giggling behind him.

He had been back every day since, and it was ridiculous, really, how much money he was spending on cupcakes. It's not like he had that much money anyway, given he didn't have a dead aunt who had left him money, like Beverly, or rich parents who sent him money each week, like William 'Bill' Denbrough, or a reasonably well paying part time job, like Stanley Uris. His parents were broke and uninterested in him, his dad had taken off when he was ten and his mum spent all her money on alcohol, and he didn't have any other relatives. And as for a job, Richie had a tendency to sleep right through any alarm clocks that he set for early morning jobs, and he got distracted easily. He helped out at shelving at the university library when it got busy, and sometimes he got gigs at local bars where he got some money, and he got his small allowance from the university.

But he didn't have enough money to be spending it on overpriced cupcakes on a daily basis.

And yet, here he was, buying these ridiculous foofy cupcakes that were good, but maybe a little too sweet, to the point where he wasn't even able to eat a whole one each day and had to start swapping them out to his friends in exchange for _real_ food that he couldn't afford because of the bloody cupcakes!

But he didn't complain, because he swore with each day that went by, he was making a little bit more progress with 'the Cupcake Kid'. Or, as he called him, ' _his_ Cupcake Kid'.

The first few weeks went by, and then Richie had a mini melt down because what if he actually _was_ a kid. He had this air about him like he was the same age as Richie and Bev, but he _was_ short, and there was his sort of dewy, innocent glow to his cheeks, even if there was a bit of a devilish glint in his eyes. What if Richie was crushing on some sixteen year old kid who was working at his first job? Richie was twenty! That would be disappointing as hell, given the money and time he had already invested into this very much so one sided relationship.

It was just going into the fourth week when he went in after classes on Friday, his last chance before the weekend, where Eddie never seemed to work and so Richie never went. It took him all of two seconds to realize that his cute little brunette wasn't behind the counter. Richie was torn between saving his money and just leaving before the guy behind the counter saw him.

"Hey!" Came a call from the handsome, dark skinned man behind the counter and Richie bit his lip in annoyance, given he had _just_ decided he was going to try and make a break for it. "Richie, right? I'm Mike."

"Hi..." Richie was a little confused as to how this guy knew his name.

"It was Eddie's birthday last night," Mike Hanlon continued as though this was completely normal. "So I'm covering his shift, usually I only work weekends and Monday mornings, but Eddie deserved a day off."

"His birthday, huh?" Richie tilted his head the side. "Turning the beautiful age of consent, I hope," he joked with a lopsided smile, even though he was completely serious and eagerly waiting for Mike's response.

"Uh, Eddie's most definitely been the age of consent for a while," Mike replied. "He just turned twenty." Richie only just managed to keep back his whoop of excitement at that. So his Cupcake Kid was only a few months younger than him.

"Well, make sure you tell my beautiful Eddiekins that I will see him on Monday, same place, same time," Richie sung out as he skipped out of the store, leaving an amused looking Mike behind.

On Monday, when Richie came back, he had a card in his hand. It was a little bent from where it had been in his backpack all day, and his writing was still a complete mess, even though he had tried to be so careful when doing it with Bev's help. She had coloured craft paper and a bunch of glitter and colourful pens, and so on Friday night when he had gotten home, he had recruited her to help him with a birthday card.

There were a few others in the cupcake shop, and so Richie hung back, dawdling by decorations and molds that the shop sold as well, for people who wanted to buy things to make their own cupcakes, until the gaggle of high schoolers had left and it was just Eddie and Richie left.

"Hey, Eds!" Richie smirked as he approached the counter.

" _Don't_ call me that," Eddie sighed with a roll of his eyes.

"But we're such good friends!" Richie insisted. "Friends have nicknames for each other! It's how they express their love and admiration!"

"So I could call you dickwad? Douchebag? Asswipe? And these would all show my love and admiration for you?" Eddie responded with a raised eyebrow, his voice dripping with sass, and _god_ , he was gorgeous.

"All I got from that sentence was that you loved and admired me," Richie replied, resting one elbow on the counter and batting his eyelashes at Eddie, very pleased with himself when a smile broke out across Eddie's face, even though he was trying to bite it back. "Anyway, I got you something," Richie felt nerves bundling together in his stomach and he thrust the card across the counter before he second guessed himself. Eddie looked surprised as he picked up the card from the counter.

Richie had drawn a big cupcake on the front—the Choccy Chocoholic one with rainbow sprinkles, because that's the one that Eddie had admitted was his favourite last week—and he had even put a glittery candle on top. He had pretty much assaulted all of Bev's glitter glue, and that was just on the first page. Eddie's lips parted and he looked up at Richie for a long moment before looking back down at the card and opening it up. Up the top in big writing, each letter in a different coloured marker pen, _Happy Birthday, Cupcake Kid/Eds/Eddiekins/Eddie Spaghetti/Prettiest Boy Alive_. And then underneath it was his poem.

 _Roses are cheesy  
_ _Violets are ick-kay  
_ _I'd rather just eat cupcakes  
_ _And stare at your fucking face all day_

Eddie was quiet for a long time, but even from the way that his head was bent forward, Richie could tell that his cheeks were pink, and when he looked up, he was chewing down hard on his lower lip. His eyes were shiny, and Richie _really_ wanted to lean in and kiss Eddie on his adorable button nose, but then there was a jingle of the bell above the door as a mother and her two kids came in, and the moment was broken.

"Uh," Eddie began, and his voice was all broken up, and he needed to clear his throat. "Um, did you want a cupcake?" He paused again before continuing weakly. "It's on the house." Richie quickly shook his head. "Or...Maybe just wait around? For a few more minutes?" His eyes looked a little pleading, but Richie's heart was beating so fast in his chest that he felt like he couldn't breathe properly.

"No, it's okay," he said as the three new customers came to the counter. "I'll see you tomorrow!" He cried over his shoulder and ran from the store.

Bev shouted at him that night, saying that he should have waited around, waited to see what Eddie wanted to say, but Richie had just shaken his head and said that there was no way he could wait around. He felt like he was suffocating in that room, and had just made the boldest move he ever had, and so he needed to get out of there. He would see him again tomorrow.

And he did.

Every day after university for the next week, Richie went to the cupcake shop to see Eddie, but they were never alone. It seemed as though the whole universe was against him, because the cupcake shop seemed to have gotten so busy that there was another worker started so there was never a time when Eddie was _ever_ alone.

So it just ended up being Richie spending more money on cupcakes and getting apologetic looks from Eddie as he served him, and then Richie leaving the store feeling dejected. It was Friday when Richie ended up with not one, but two cupcakes, because they had a special on, and Eddie had explained the deal, and then done it a second time, because Richie just wanted as much of his time as he could get, and then he had brought two cupcakes. He had tried to ask Eddie what time his break was, but the girl who had started working at the cupcake shop with him—Greta Bowie—had just shouted at him and said that he needed to hurry up and serve the next customer.

"I can't keep eating these cupcakes," Richie complained as he sat at the rickety kitchen table in their apartment. Bev was sitting next to him, and Stan was on the other side, with his text books spread out, and his pen in his hand, not paying much attention to the other two as he worked. "Do you want one?" Richie asked, holding it out to Stan, since Bev had already turned it down.

"Nah, I'm fine," Stan said as he glanced down at the lemon cupcake in Richie's hand. "I get a heap of them anyway, coz Eddie always brings them to psych class." Richie spat out the bite of cupcake that he had just taken, and bits of icing and sponge went spraying all over the table and Stan's books. Stan jerked backward and his upper lip curled in disgust as he narrowed his eyes at Richie. "What the fuck?" He snapped.

"Did you say Eddie?" Richie asked, pieces of cupcake still falling from his mouth.

"You're disgusting," Stan stated.

"Stan!" Richie and Bev demanded.

"Shit, okay, whatever," Stan rolled his eyes, looking completely clueless as to why he was being yelled at. "Yeah, Eddie? He's a guy in my psych class, and he works at that cupcake place where you got those—" he waved a hand at the cupcake Eddie had been offering him. "— _Cupcake Cafe_. It was his twentieth that I went to a few weeks ago, you knew that."

"I didn't know it was _Eddie_ that you were seeing!" Richie cried. "Or else I would have actually listened to you!" Stan rolled his eyes at that.

"I don't see how this is relevant," Stan shrugged his shoulders, starting to look disinterested as he picked up his books and flicked at the crumbs that Richie had sprayed with one of his flash cards.

"Eddie's _the_ guy!" Bev cried. "Eddie's the guy that Rich has been fucking love sick over the past couple of months!" Stan stopped brushing away the crumbs and paused, raising his eyebrows as he looked over at Richie.

"Huh," he muttered, before shrugging again and went back to his books. "Wouldn't have thought that he would have been your type."

"Not my type?!" Richie squawked. "I'm not into beautiful people?! Small, cinnamon rolls?! With eyes like the prettiest colour of mud?!" Bev snorted at that and Stan arched and eyebrow, but Richie ignored them. Stan had just proved what a good friend he was anyway, so Richie had a plan to ignore him for the foreseeable future. Unless, of course, he managed to redeem himself. "You _have_ to introduce me!" Richie demanded, getting up from his seat and bracing his hands on the table, leaning over it and toward Stan.

"Uh," Stan glanced toward Bev for help, but she just stared back at him. "What if _he_ doesn't like _you_? Eddie's my friend as well, and I don't want to put him in some awkward position, just throwing you at him or anything." Richie continued to stare at Stan, not even blinking behind those coke bottle glasses he wore. "Fine," Stan eventually growled. " _Fine_. Just...Don't be too overwhelming, okay? He gets a little anxious around new people." The last part of his sentence was drowned out by Richie crowing and practically leaping across the table to grab Stan's collar and planting a wet, sloppy kiss on Stan's mouth. "Oh, for fucks sakes," Stan grumbled, but there was a small smile on his face as he pulled away from Richie. "Don't be all weird and shit."

"Bev—" Richie spun around to face the red headed girl. "Did you hear that? I'm going to meet the love of my life!" Bev laughed and let herself be pulled into a hug while Stan just sighed.

"This is what I meant by weird..." he sighed, but was ignored by the other two.

* * *

It was Monday, a couple hours before Richie's only class of the day. Usually he wouldn't be at the university until just before one in the afternoon, sometimes just after, given he wasn't too good with being on time. But Stan had a class from ten until eleven thirty, and apparently Eddie had never missed a class—even when he'd had an asthma attack and been admitted into hospital the night before—and so it seemed like a pretty sure thing that he was going to be meeting Eddie.

Richie had even attempted to brush his hair that morning, although it really didn't help much—it was a haircut that he really needed, given how crazy his curls were getting. He changed into a pair of black skinny jeans, the ones with only one rip in them, and a baggy purple and black flowery shirt that was a couple buttons undone, to show off the black singlet underneath. Bev had shouted after him that he had dried toothpaste at the corner of his mouth as he walked out the front door, and he had panicked as he had run back to the bathroom and scrubbed at his face, spraying some cologne on at the last minute before leaving the apartment again at a run.

He got a text from Stan as he had got onto campus, telling him that they had been let out of class early and they were heading toward the outdoor picnic tables, near the cafeteria. This time of day, the cafeteria was completely flooded, but outside wasn't quite as busy, and Richie was easily able to find Stan and a shorter brunette were sitting at a picnic table, on opposite sides.

Eddie was laughing at something that Stan had said, and the sound was so pure that Richie wanted to cry.

It wasn't until Richie was right beside the table that Eddie saw him, his eyes widening and the laugh cutting off abruptly.

"Richie?" Eddie asked, blinking a few times.

"I'm just gonna go," Stan said as he stood up and Eddie looked toward him in confusion. "Don't be weird," Stan repeated his earlier comment, jabbing a finger at Richie's chest. "And I really hope you still want to be my partner in our upcoming assignment after this," he cast a quick, almost pleading look over at Eddie before he walked away from the table, the two other boys watching him go.

"Hi," Richie managed to say.

"Hi," Eddie's voice was tentative. The two boys stared at each other for a long, few beats and then Eddie blurted out, "I don't know if I can go out with a guy who thinks that 'ick-kay' is the right way to say 'icky'," Richie's mouth dropped, because he had never even mentioned going out, and if Eddie was jumping to that conclusion, then maybe he actually had a chance.

"I'm not the best at poems," Richie reasoned. "I'm better at jokes."

"I doubt that," Eddie stated wryly as he slowly moved his legs around so that his whole body was fully facing Richie while still sitting at the picnic table.

"Well, I am," Richie stated, sounding a little indignant.

"Go on then," Eddie challenged him. Richie sighed and thought for a moment.

"What has two legs and is red all over?" He asked. Eddie pursed his lips together as he thought, and then shrugged.

"I don't know. What?"

"Half a cat," Richie answered. Eddie stared at him with blank eyes for almost a whole minute before he snorted, a grin breaking out across his face. The snort turned into a laugh, and pretty soon both of them were laughing until tears were gathering in their eyes. Eddie wiped at his eyes and shook his head.

"That was fucking terrible," Eddie said between breaths as he tried to steady it out again after laughing for so long.

"Well, I can bring a whole list...If, you know, you want to meet up for dinner tonight?'

"A whole list of horrible jokes? What a seductive offer," Eddie rolled his eyes, a pretty smile still on his face. Richie held his breath, waiting as Eddie seemed to mull over the offer, and just when Richie thought that maybe Eddie was going to try and let him down lightly, he nodded his head once. "I finish at seven. Come and pick me up there."

Richie was proud of himself for not screaming out ' _yes_ ' so loud that Bev could hear them back in their apartment. Instead, he settled for a wide grin, and then leaning in to kiss Eddie quickly on the cheek.

"I'll you at seven, Cupcake Kid!" He cried as he began jogging backwards, knowing that he needed to get home and figure out _where_ they were going to go for dinner and also get started on that list of terrible jokes. There were at least fifty 'yo mumma' ones that he could bust out.

"It's _Eddie_!" Eddie shouted after him, but there was a smile on his face, and that adorable twinkle in his eyes almost made Richie trip over his feet before he waved one last time and turned around, running away with _so many_ plans in his head.

 _Let me know what you think :)_


End file.
